Results for parable
On this page:
 
Dictionary:

parable

  (păr'ə-bəl) pronunciation
n.

A simple story illustrating a moral or religious lesson.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin parabola, from Greek parabolē, from paraballein, to compare : para-, beside; see para–1 + ballein, to throw.]


 
 

parable, a brief tale intended to be understood as an allegory illustrating some lesson or moral. The forty parables attributed to Jesus of Nazareth in Christian literature have had a lasting influence upon the Western tradition of didactic allegory. A modern instance is Wilfred Owen's poem ‘The Parable of the Old Man and the Young’ (1920), which adapts a biblical story to the 1914–18 war; a longer prose parable is John Steinbeck's The Pearl (1948).

adjective: parabolic.

See also fable.
 
the term translates the Hebrew word “mashal”—a term denoting a metaphor, or an enigmatic saying or an analogy. In the Greco-Roman rhetorical tradition, however, “parables” were illustrative narrative examples. Jewish teachers of the 1st cent. A.D. made use of comparisons in narrative form to clarify scripture. As used in the Gospels, the “parable” not only denotes metaphors, analogies, and enigmatic statements, but also short illustrative narratives. In Jesus' parables, the speaker compares an observable, natural, or human phenomenon to the Kingdom (i.e. the rule) of God. Some of these challenge and mystify or even attack the hearer. Other parables are allegories. The major themes of the parables of Jesus include the contrast between the old and new age now dawning in the ministry of Jesus; the necessity of radical decisions; the gradual but sure growth of the Kingdom of God on earth; God's way of relating to people; and God's invitation for people to enter his Kingdom.

Bibliography

See W. S. Kissinger, The Parables of Jesus (1979); R. W. Funk, Parables and Presence (1982); J. Marcus, The Mystery of the Kingdom of God (1986).


 

In the New Testament, the stories told by Jesus to convey his religious message; they include the parable of the Good Samaritan and that of the Prodigal Son.

 
Word Tutor: parable
pronunciation

IN BRIEF: A brief narrative founded on real scenes or events usually with a moral. ALSO: a short, simple story that teaches a moral lesson, as in the Bible.

pronunciation The minister shared a parable from the Bible.

 
Wikipedia: parable

A parable is a brief, succinct story, in prose or verse, that illustrates a moral or religious lesson. It differs from a fable in that fables use animals, plants, inanimate objects, and forces of nature as actors while parables generally are stories featuring human actors or agents.

Some scholars of the New Testament use the term "parable" only to refer to the parables of Jesus,[1] although that is not a common restriction of the term.

Characteristics

The word "parable" comes from the Greek "παραβολή" (parabolē), the name given by Greek rhetoricians to any fictive illustration in the form of a brief narrative. Later it came to mean a fictitious narrative, generally referring to something that might naturally occur, by which spiritual and moral matters might be conveyed.[2]

Examples of parable are Jesus of Nazareth's "Parable of the Prodigal Son" and Ignacy Krasicki's "The Blind Man and the Lame."

A parable is one of the simplest of narratives. It sketches a setting, describes an action, and shows the results. It often involves a character facing a moral dilemma, or making a questionable decision and then suffering the consequences of that choice. As with a fable, a parable generally relates a single, simple, consistent action, without extraneous detail or distracting circumstances. Many folktales could be viewed as extended parables.

The prototypical parable differs from the apologue in that it is a realistic story that seems inherently probable and takes place in a familiar setting of life.

Many fairy tales could be viewed as extended parables, except for their magical settings.

A parable is like a metaphor that has been extended to form a brief, coherent fiction. Unlike the situation with a simile, a parable's parallel meaning is unspoken and implicit, though not ordinarily secret.

The defining characteristic of the parable is the presence of a prescriptive subtext suggesting how a person should behave or believe. Aside from providing guidance and suggestions for proper action in life, parables frequently use metaphorical language which allows people to more easily discuss difficult or complex ideas. In Plato's Republic, parables like the "Parable of the Cave" (in which one's understanding of truth is presented as a story about being deceived by shadows on the wall of a cave) teach an abstract argument, using a concrete narrative which is more easily grasped.[2]

In the preface to his translation of Aesop's Fables, George Fyler Townsend defined "parable" as "the designed use of language purposely intended to convey a hidden and secret meaning other than that contained in the words themselves, and which may or may not bear a special reference to the hearer or reader."[3] This definition, however, does not fit with common modern uses of the term "parable," as the meanings of parables are not generally held to be hidden or secret but rather are typically intended to be straightforward and obvious.

It is the allegory that typically features hidden meanings. As H.W. Fowler puts it in Modern English Usage, the object of both parable and allegory "is to enlighten the hearer by submitting to him a case in which he has apparently no direct concern, and upon which therefore a disinterested judgment may be elicited from him." The parable, though, is more condensed than the allegory: a single principle comes to bear, and a single moral is deduced as it dawns on the reader or listener that the conclusion applies equally well to his own concerns. [2]

History

Parables are favored in the expression of spiritual concepts. The best-known source of parables in Christianity is the Bible, which contains numerous parables in the Gospels section of the New Testament. Jesus' parables, which are attested in many sources and are almost universally seen as being historical, are thought by scholars such as John P. Meier to have come from mashalim, a form of Hebrew comparison.[1] Examples of Jesus' parables include "the Good Samaritan" and "the Prodigal Son". Mashalim from the Old Testament include the "parable of the ewe-lamb" told by Nathan in 2 Samuel 12:1-9, and that of "the woman of Tekoah" in 2 Samuel 14:1-13.

Medieval interpreters of the Bible often treated Jesus's parables as detailed allegories, with symbolic correspondences found for every element in the brief narratives. Modern critics, beginning with Adolf Jülicher, regard these interpretations as inappropriate and untenable.[4] Jülicher held that these parables usually are intended to make a single important point, and most recent scholarship agrees.[1]

Recently there has been interest in contemporary parable, exploring how modern stories can be used as parables. A mid-19th-century contemporary parable is the "Parable of the Broken Window," which exposes a fallacy in economic thinking.

References

  1. ^ a b c John P. Meier, A Marginal Jew, volume II, Doubleday, 1994.
  2. ^ a b c H.W. Fowler, Modern English Usage, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1958.
  3. ^ George Fyler Townsend, translator's preface to Aesop's Fables, Belford, Clarke & Co., 1887.
  4. ^ Adolf Jülicher, Die Gleichmisreden Jesu (2 vols; Tübingen: Mohr [Siebeck], 1888, 1899).

See also

External links


 
Translations: Translations for: Parable

Dansk (Danish)
n. - lignelse

Nederlands (Dutch)
parabel, allegorie

Français (French)
n. - parabole (Bible)

Deutsch (German)
n. - Parabel, Gleichnis

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - παραβολή, αλληγορία

Italiano (Italian)
parabola

Português (Portuguese)
n. - parábola (f)

Русский (Russian)
притча

Español (Spanish)
n. - parábola (narración)

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - parabel, liknelse

中文(简体) (Chinese (Simplified))
寓言, 谜, 比喻

中文(繁體) (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 寓言, 謎, 比喻

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 우화, 비유, 수수께끼

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 寓話, たとえ話

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) مثل, كحايه رمزيه ذات مغزى ومعنى‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮משל, אליגוריה‬


 
Best of the Web: parable

Some good "parable" pages on the web:


American Sign Language
commtechlab.msu.edu
 
 
Shopping: parable
the parable a movie
 
 

Join the WikiAnswers Q&A community. Post a question or answer questions about "parable" at WikiAnswers.

 

Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Literary Dictionary. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Copyright © Chris Baldick 2001, 2004. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/  Read more
Bible Dictionary. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.  Read more
Word Tutor. Copyright © 2004-present by eSpindle Learning, a 501(c) nonprofit organization. All rights reserved.
eSpindle provides personalized spelling and vocabulary tutoring online; free trial Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Parable" Read more
Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved.  Read more

Search for answers directly from your browser with the FREE Answers.com Toolbar!  
Click here to download now. 

Get Answers your way! Check out all our free tools and products.

On this page:   E-mail   print Print  Link  

 

Keep Reading

Mentioned In: